


Farewell to a Friend

by rennigann



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-09 23:19:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8917054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rennigann/pseuds/rennigann
Summary: The trek to the Frost Giant's lair was daunting and long.  But the two friends were intent on leaving with the skull of the Giant King.  Little did Will know, he would be leaving without his most valued treasure.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I am pretty heartbroken right now.  
> So normally if you lose a follower in Skyrim, you can just reload the save and get them back, right? Well...I prevented that from happening.  
> Karstaag was totally kicking our asses, as you saw in the story. So I retreated back into the caves, but saw that my save thing was full, and I needed to save before I went back to try and kill Karstaag, so I deleted all my saves and saved. Then I turned around to heal Teldryn...and saw that he was gone. And I freaked out and ran back into the courtyard and he was DEAD. And I was SO SAD. I was trying to get to a hundred in pickpocket so that I could remove his helmet and finally see what he looked like, and only after I killed Karstaag (doing what you saw, except for the kill move in the end, I just pumped the bastard full of arrows) was I able to go over and remove his helm.  
> And...I actually did go back to Riverwood and put his helmet on the stump of a tree...because Teldryn had mentioned in the game that Riverwood was where he'd want to live...  
> I'm just way too broken up over this. I lost my favorite follower forever.

**Will Blackarrow-|-The Ranger of the North-|-Solstheim**  
  
I first met the dark elf at, surprise, surprise, a tavern.  A queer little place on the island of Solstheim, previously a part of Morrowind but now a province of Skyrim.  I remember going into the tavern looking for nothing but a lackey to carry my things.  I was going to be going on a long expedition you see, traveling all the way across the island to find a tribe of nomads who lived in the North, and I acquired the assistance of someone who would carry my belongings.    
  
So when I first saw the dark elf, sitting in the corner and drinking the Nine knows what from a small yellow vial, clad head to toe in chitin armor, I thought he would be the perfect choice.  During my brief, first conversation with the dark elf, he claimed to be the best swordsman in Solstheim.  I accepted his boast with a nod of my head and a roll of my eyes.  Every sell sword I have met on my journeys has claimed to be a dangerous adversary.  Little did I know though that Teldryn Sero was telling me the absolute truth.  
  
At first, Teldryn was nothing more to me than a tool.  Something I could use and once I was finished with him, pay the man his gold and let him be on his merry way to spend his spoils on wenches or whatever pleasure the dark elf desired.  That was just how it was, it’s what sellswords were for and I tended to not let myself grow attached.  After all, it was just the money that they were after.    
  
But with Teldryn, I realized that was not the case.  Here was a man who took in everything, saw every detail, and reveled in it.  This was at its most prominent in Riverwood.    
  
We had just been passing through on our way to visit my home in Falkreath, Lakeview Manor.  I always loved Riverwood, and made sure to pass through whenever I came near.  My wife, Camilla was also from Riverwood and I always made sure to drop by the Riverwood Traders to greet her brother.  The town was also just...beautiful.  It had a softness to it, from the lush green trees that the village was tucked away in, the crystal blue river that cut through its center and the spray of water from the falls North of the town.  It was one of my favorite places to be.    
  
I stepped out of the Riverwood Trader, gold septims spilling through my fingers.  I didn’t have to say a word.  Teldryn drew a sack and I dumped the gold inside and we stooped down to pick up the remaining septims, tossing it into the bag and I shoved it into Shadowmere’s travel bags.    
  
Worn out from a long day’s adventure, the two of us sat down on a bench, watching the little boy, Frodnar play with his shaggy mutt of a dog, Stumpy.  A warm breeze sifted through and I breathed, removing my cloak and draped it down over my shoulders, leaning back against the wooden wall behind my head and closed my eyes.  It was a hot day.  The sun burned through the verdant leaves and I could feel my skin burning.  I looked to Teldryn.  As usual, the elf was hidden behind an odd set of armor, a globe like helm, rough like rock with two goggle like visors that hid his eyes with green grass.  A red scarf wrapped its way around his neck and he wore his heavy breastplate, in the unusual style of the chitin armor.  I wondered why he was so adamant to never remove his helm.  If I gave him a better set of armor he would wear it gladly, but he would never take off his helmet.  The curiosity would always burn me, but I let the dunmer have his privacy as I drew out my worn map, laying it on my lap and began to mark out our road.    
  
I stopped when I heard a humming.  It was a low, husky hum that made my throat vibrate and I turned to Teldryn.  He was humming.  He was leaning back with one leg crossed over another with his hands behind his head, relaxed like he was laying out on some Hammerfell beach.  I smirked.    
  
“I see you like it, here,” I said with a smile, going back to my map.  He was constantly complaining about the other cities we have visited.  Whiterun was apparently nothing compared to his home city of Blacklight.  Windhelm homed too many disheartened dunmers.  And Riften, well, he never said anything outright negative about the place, but his sarcasm spoke for itself.  So I was surprised by Teldryn’s words.  
  
“Riverwood is...peaceful.”  
  
Now, that surprised me.  I didn’t find Riverwood to be a place that would attract an elf such as Teldryn.  I looked up at him.  “It is,” I agreed with a nod.  “It’s why I’m so fond of it.”  
  
“As am I.”  Teldryn sat up.  I couldn’t see his eyes, but I could imagine him watching everything.  The smoke curling up from the wooden buildings, the old woman rocking back and forth on her chair on her porch, the sunlight that shone in beams through the leaves.  He chuckled.  “If I had to settle down anywhere in Skyrim...in the world, really, it would be right here.  In Riverwood.”  
  
I knew at that moment that Teldryn would always be more to me than just a sellsword.  Before, that was all they had been.  Weapons.  To hear Teldryn say something that was so similar to how I felt, to find something we had in common despite our countless differences, it humanized the elf.    
  
And he became my friend.    
  
  
  
My face was raw with the cold.  Frozen fractals of ice and snow lashed at my cheeks and I tried to pull the cowl of my hood further over my head to protect myself from the biting cold.  It was to no avail, my eyes stung and I could scarcely feel my fingers.    
  
“Will!”  
  
I turned.  I could barely see my companion through the blizzard.  That helmet was probably doing him good, now.  Every inch of his body was protected from the cold, but I could still see the trembles in his arms as he strode next to me.  “I would advise you take us out of this blizzard,” he said, his dry voice torn away in the wind.  “I would rather not freeze to death.”  
  
“We’re almost there,” I insisted.  The weight of the skull dragged my bag down.  We had traveled across the entirety of the island to retrieve this skull.  This creature, Karstaag...he was a mystery.  It was said that there was an ancient force that tied the Giant King’s skull with his throne, and a great power would be granted to whomever joined the master and throne together.  Teldryn had been the first to tell me of the legend.  And it was a mystery that we were both determined to solve.    
  
I peered into the icy winds, blinking back tears from the cold as I gazed into the white haze.  This wasn’t working.  I had been hoping to save my power for a more practical matter, but I didn’t have a choice anymore.  We would both be lost, and freeze to death.    
  
I felt a warmth build up in my throat as I took a step forward.  “Lok vah koor!” The words exploded from my lips and echoed into the night air.  At first, there was a stillness, silence except for the winds that billowed from around our heads.  Then it began to die down.  The winds billowed slower, and softer until there was nothing.  The dark clouds that had blocked out the night sky cleared away, allowing impossible colors of green, orange and red to shine down on the snow, painting it in a mirage of blazing colors.    
  
I heard a chuckle from Teldryn.  “I might be able to admire that little skill of yours,” the dunmer mused.  “But your noise truly is deafening.”  
  
“My apologies.”  Now that I could see clearly, I stooped down to brush away the snow so that I could look at the ground.  Ash.  Karstaag’s cave was North West of the ashlands.  I told him to follow and we continued through the snow, quiet save for the crunching of our boots and the huffs of our breath as we ascended up into the mountains.  We had cleared out the majority of Karstaag’s range of tunnels of reiklings, an evil little bunch of small goblin like beings and had discovered a secret passage that led to his courtyard.  And that was the passage we would take now.    
  
It didn’t take us long to find it.  Once we found the familiar trail, it took me not a half hour to lead us back to where we came from, to metal door on the edge of the cliff that led to Karstaag’s courtyard.    
  
The heavyset iron doors required the both of us to open it.  Straining at the frozen hinges we yanked it open, cringing as it cracked and rumbled as it moved over the ice.  We stopped and waited, but we couldn’t hear the telltale screeches or maniacal laughter of the reiklings and we slid inside.  
  
The courtyard was a circular area, completely surrounded by cliffs that went high up into the sky.  It was massive and a tunnel led into the reikling caves and in the back of the courtyard, was a throne.  It was huge, far larger than any I had ever seen, and believe me, I’ve spent my fair time around royals.    
  
The throne was all that was there.  The rest of the couryard was completely empty.  “So, now what,” Teldryn muttered, stepping beside me.  “We put the old giant’s skull on the throne and hope for something to happen?”  
  
“I guess.”  
  
“That seems far too easy.”  
  
“I know.”  
  
He could feel it.  He could feel it just as I could feel it.  A sinking feeling that was something was about to go terribly wrong.  But there was no turning back.  Not now.  I breathed, reaching inside my pack and pulled out the skull.  I had to discard most of my possessions at the Retching Netch tavern in order to haul this thing all the way to Northern Solstheim, it was bigger than the skull of the horse.  It weighed down my arms as I strode up to the foot of the throne, the seat suspended seven feet off the ground.  I hesitated, then slid the skull onto the seat of the throne and took a step backwards.    
  
At first, there was nothing.  A stillness that just amplified our nerve, our stress.  I turned around to tell Teldryn that the legend of his was a fake when there was a crack of power.  A force, much like the force of my shout, pushed me backwards with a chilly cold that numbed my entire body and I smacked up against one of the walls and I heard Teldryn groan as he hit the wall on the other side of the courtyard.    
  
The power had come from the throne.  I groaned, looking back at the throne, my vision hazy from the impact and I could see a blizzard swirling at the foot of the throne.  The snow and ice exploded, and a massive hand clawed at the ground, tearing up chunks of ice.  The being crawled out of the icy ground, and I knew then that we had walked into something that was more than what we bargained for.  Karstaag the Frozen King was truly a force to be reckoned with.  By the time the undead giant tore its way from the earth, iti stood nearly twenty feet tall, wielding a massive frozen club with an icicle forming a lethal pointed edge.    
  
Teldryn and I immediately backed away towards the edge of the couryard.  We had to form a plan.  I immediately began to try to find weaknesses in the giant.  An undead, so poison and paralysis would do nothing.  A giant of frost, so fire would be the most lethal.  As for sneak attacks, that was already out of the question.  The giant had turned to us and was gazing at us with glowing cyan eyes that made my heart chill over.    
  
I hadn’t even noticed that I was frozen in place until Teldryn’s voice snapped into my consciousness.  “Will, move!”  
  
I snapped out of it, and spotted the club coming down on me.  I barely managed to roll out of the way, but the impact of the club hitting the ground beside me made my teeth chatter and I lost balance stumbling to the ground.  The giant had hit the ground so hard that his club bit into it and he had to spend time trying to tear it from the ice, allowing me some time to get up and try to form a tactical plan.    
  
“Teldryn!” I shouted.  “Summon your atronach, draw its attention with flame!  I’m going to try to find a weak point!”  
  
The dark elf nodded, and his voice was enlivened with anticipation.  “It would be my pleasure.”  The dark elf thrust out his hands, a red glow in his palms and the ground before him lit up in flames as a creature of Oblivion was summoned before him.  A woman wreathed in flames with golden, fiery locks of hair that lashed out around her waist.    
  
Teldryn and his atronach set to work, flanking the giant with Teldryn launching fireballs at its back as the atronach went in with her burning hands to attack.  I backed away to watch for something, anything that could help us.  An undead frost giant king or not, he was still a giant and there were some weaknesses I could draw from that.  An incredibly powerful swing, but slow.  And that might just be able to save our lives.  
  
I watched as one of Teldryn’s blasts hit the creature square in the face as it turned around to face him, as lazily as if it were turning to swat a fly.  A blast like that should have melted its frozen face clean from its bones.  But the flesh seemed to regrow as quickly as it was torn away.  Cells split and and congealed, bones broke and mended.  The creature was healing itself.    
  
Teldryn seemed to notice.  Maybe it was just the flames, a way for it to protect itself against fire.  But as Teldryn drew the ebony sword that I had gifted him and slashed it across the giant’s skin, we watched as it slipped back together, like nothing had happened.  By the time Teldryn and his Atronach backed away to get a breather, the thing had completely healed itself.    
  
The atronach had been doing a fair job at dodging the creature’s blows, but it became unlucky.  It went to slip underneath the creature’s arm to get behind it and launch a ball of flames at its back, but it couldn’t avoid the hand that came flying at its throat.  Ignoring the fire as it lifted the atronach above the ground by her throat, her feet kicking out underneath her, he brought his club down on her head and she exploded into flames.  Which left Teldryn alone, unguarded.  I was about to shout at him to retreat when another force of power exploded from the giant.  
  
We were both thrown backwards, both hitting the same wall and he groaned, slumping against one another and looked up warily at the giant.  It had raised its arms and at that moment it screamed.  It was so loud that it made my chest feel like it was being ripped apart and I cringed, holding my ears as its screech echoed through the cliffs.  Then I heard the rumbling.  I looked up, and ten tons of snow were flaling down from the face of the cliff.  
  
“Teldryn, move!”  We both scrambled up, sprinting away from the side of the cliff as the snow came pounding onto the ground and we whirled around to face the giant.  It had called allies.  Ice wraiths, terrifying, ghostly serpentine wisps were flying down from the cliffs, giving their hisses as their icy bodies rattled with the wind that was swirling around Karstaag like a blizzard.  
  
I cursed, drawing my bow.  “Teldryn,” I said, turning to the dunmer.  “Take care of the wraiths.  I’ll keep Karstaag focused.”  
  
Teldryn gave a nod.  “You’re the boss,” he said, and I narrowed my eyes.  Even with both of our lives at stake, he was still choosing to be a sarcastic little shit.  I could almost see Teldryn’s devilish smile and he whistled, drawing the attention of the ice wraiths.    
  
I turned to Kartaag.  Teldryn was distracting him by fighting his wraiths, I had to draw him away from my companion.  I fired the first arrow into its shoulder and it turned to me, using a finger to snap off the shaft like it had just been a needle.  I hissed under my breath, watching as the skin underneath the wound reformed as the icy winds swirled around the beast.  The cold was healing it.  Well, there was no way we were going to be able to shove it through the door and into the ashlands.    
  
Karstaag moved faster than I had anticipated.  In three swift sides, he was on the other end of the courtyard, and nearly to me.  Just one look at that club told me that it would take only one hit for it to crush my skull and splatter my innards across the courtyard.  And poor Teldryn would have no one to share his spoils with.    
  
“Fus ro dah!”    
  
It was the first time the shout had ever failed me.  Even  a normal giant would have been thrown onto its back, a mammoth would stumble.  But no, Karstaag kept up his charge, completely immune to its shout.    
  
I ducked, feeling the force and power of the club as it flew over my head, cracking into the wall behind me.  I heard Teldryn call out my name and as my dizziness faded, I could feel a stinging pain in my stomach.  I was lying on my back, and when I lifted my head I could see red slipping onto the icy ground.  The ground had exploded into icy shards, one of the fragments having torn into my stomach.    
  
My body was so cold that I was numb to the pain.  I was barely able to roll out of the way as Karstaag’s club came down again and I came up, looking to Teldryn.  The dark elf twirled, his sword flashing and cracked up against the skull of an ice wraith and it burst into icy fragments.    
  
I turned over to face Karstaag who was approaching in a lazy stroll.  He couldn’t be beaten.  I could see it in his eyes.  I lifted my hand, dropping my bow and felt my palm heat up and shot the flames into its face.  It was enough to make the giant stumble, rubbing its eyes with its arm as it healed itself and I stood up and stumbled to Teldryn who caught my shoulder.    
  
“Will,” he breathed.  He looked down at my stomach and I heard him growl.  He reached into his cloak, pulling a vial and shoved it at me.  “Drink up.”  
  
“We can’t kill this thing,” I whisper hoarsely, looking back to Karstaag.  I downed the vial, feeling myself grow stronger, but I was still so weak.  My stomach stung like I had been sliced open with a blade, and my vision was growing blurry.  I felt myself tilt, and Teldryn’s grip on my shoulder tightened.  
  
“Go,” he growled, turning back to Karstaag.  “I have your back, outlander.”  
  
“Are you sure?”  I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to debate.  Karstaag was starting to lumber towards us, and Teldryn nodded, the hand that wasn’t gripping his blade lighting up in flames.  
  
“I’m sure.  Now go!”  He pushed me backwards.  I didn’t havea choice.  I was so weak I felt like I was about to fall over and I nodded, telling him to meet me there and I sped away from him towards the tunnels that led into the mountainside.    
  
I could hear Teldryn following behind me, but then I heard another screech tear from Karstaag’s throat and I shouted, holding my ears as I stumbled towards the opening.  My ears were ringing and as I reached the mouth of the tunnel, my foot slipped.  I fell, pain erupting in my stomach and I grimaced in pain, crawling deeper into the darkness, trying to ignore the wet, sticky trail of blood that I was undoubtedly leaving behind.    
  
The sounds of battle slowly ebbed away.  At least, what I could hear of it.  My eardrums were still vibrating from the sound of Karstaag’s yell and I was blind in the darkness of the tunnels.  I breathed, knocking my head up against the icy side of the cave wall and panted, fumbling blindly for a vial.  When I found it, I prayed to the divines that it wasn’t poison as I downed it.  I felt my strength return to me, the pain slowly decline until there was no pain, just exhaustion.    
  
I was quiet for a long while, panting and watching my eyelids.  “Thanks for the help back there,” I whispered to Teldryn.  “I wouldn’t have been able to make it without you.”  
  
There was no answer.  That was about when I remembered...I hadn’t heard him follow me in.  I opened my eyes.  I was of course met with blindness, but I sat up and tried to peer into the inky blackness.  “Teldryn?”  
  
No answer.  He hadn’t come in with me.  “Shit!”    
  
I picked myself, a panic starting to set into my gut as I threw out my hands to the cave walls.  My gloves had been torn and my fingertips met the icy edge as I felt my way back through the tunnels.  I left him.  I had been so blind in my pain and exhaustion and desperation that I had just left him.    
  
The light of the courtyard could be seen on the other edge of the tunnel.  I could hear the swirling winds of Karstaag’s blizzard, and I kept hoping that I would see Teldryn stagger into the tunnel.  But he never came. I cursed myself, my craven decision to leave him as I charged forwards, stopping only at the opening and pressed my back against the wall.  Karstaag may not know I was there yet.  I peeked aorund the corner and my stomach sank.  I could see Karstaag, the pointed edge of his club dripping with red.    
  
Then I saw Teldryn.  He was sitting, slumped against the wall with his head tilted forwards, palms open to the sky and his blade on the ground.  He was still.    
  
I slowly made my way over to him, carefully avoiding patches of snow where I knew my boots would crack and make noise as I went to reach him.  Finally I got to the dunmer and I placed my hand on his shoulder.  “Teldryn,” I whispered.  I looked down, and my stomach rolled.  His armor was sodden with blood.  
  
I heard a guttural growl and I turned my head slowly towards Karstaag.  He had heard me, the softest whisper and was raising his club warily.  I turned back to Teldryn.  “Teldryn, wake up.”  
  
My heart fluttered as I saw the dark elf’s fingers clench into a ball, but he stayed silent.  Smart elf.  He didn’t want to give me away.    
  
I turned back to Karstaag, my blood hot.  I reached back for my bow...and couldn’t feel it.  I looked to Karstaag, and saw it.  Zephyr lay right at the foot of Karstaag’s throne...right at Karstaag’s feet.  I couldn’t kill this thing without my weapon.  And there was no way I would be able to just sneak over and retreat it.    
  
This was going to be about speed.  
  
I took a deep breath, my eyes locked on the bow.  If I made a wrong move, I’d be dead.  I launched off from the cliff.  
  
Karstaag roared and faced me as I made a mad dash for my bow, keeping low to the ground and it took me not more than a couple seconds to reach Karstaag, but I was barely able to dodge his club as it swung over me.  I rolled, tumbling into the snow and I felt the icy sting as it wormed its way down my cloak and against my chest.  I crawled blindly through the snow, my fingers gripping the cold dwarven steel of my bow and I rolled out of the way, dodging another blow of the thing’s club and leaped up, retreating backwards.    
  
I fired two shots into its side.  Dodged a blow and fired two more.  It appeared that the more shots I fired, the slower it took for him to regenerate but eventually I had to retreat to distance myself from him, and in that time he was able to completely heal himself.  
  
I couldn’t do this alone.  Teldryn was out of action, and I was no conjurer.  I would need the help of something a bit more powerful.    
  
“Mul qua diiv!”  My shout summoned the ancient power of my draconic soul, and I felt my skin hardneed with dragon scales, a strength fill me that hand’t previously been there and when I turned to the side, I saw the ghostly specter of a dragonborn from ages past be summoned to my side.  My draconic ally wasted no time in coming to my aid, immediately recognizing the problem and he set out to start lashing at the giant, two foes slashing at one another as they started to battle.  Good.  Now for one more friend.    
  
As soon as I felt my strength return to me, one last shout escaped my lips.  “Hun kaal zoor!”   I knew my shouts were over.  Blackness washed over my eyes and I stumbled, trying to regain my footing.  When I opened my eyes, one more ancient hero had been summoned to my side to defeat this beast.    
  
Which gave me the edge I needed to kill this thing.  
  
With Karstaag’s immediate focus on the two summoned warriors, I started planting my arrows into his back.  I sprinted around the edge of the cave and as he summoned his wraiths, I ignored them.  Ignored the freezing lashes as it whipped its tail at my arms, tearing through my armor.  I had to bring Karstaag down.    
  
My arrows found its chest, its legs, its arms, its back.  Any piece of exposed felsh that I could find, firing one, two, three arrows at a time.  And I could see it slowly starting to weaken.  Its moves were becoming clumsy, slower.  We were killing it.    
  
Then it completely destroyed my warriors.  The club came down on the first and he shouted his return to Sovngarde and melted into a blue mist.  The other tried to move around, having lost his advantage of a flank and went to slash at its back when Karstaag swung his arm backwards, catching him and launched him into the cliff face so hard that he dissipated into ash.  And Karstaag turned his icy blue eyes on me.    
  
Time slowed down.  For the first time in a long time, I felt panic.  I could see my icy breath escaping my trembling lips.  My arms felt stiff, from fear, from teh cold, I didn’t know.  And I wanted to run.  Slink into the darkness and leave this place behind me and never return.  But then I brought my eyes to Teldryn.  He hadn’t moved.  His head was slumped to the side, and I knew he very well might be dead.  It enraged me.  
  
I snarled, and charged.  I knew it was a suicide charge.  Karstaag was already starting to heal, but I didn’t care.  I just wanted to do everything and anything I could to hurt this thing, to kill him.  I dodged the first blow, feeling the vibrations of the attack on the ground numb my leg, and my mind went on autopilot.    
  
I spun, avoiding a swing of his hand and I grabbed onto his forearm, using the motion to propel myself upwards.  I grabbed his shoulder, pulling myself up so I was sitting up near his neck, twenty feet above the ground.  I shouted, grabbing an arrow from my quiver and rammed it into the thing’s neck.  Blue light beamed from the hole in its neck and I stabbed again, and again, and again.  The hole ripped and grew bigger as I forced the arrow deeper and deeper through his throat.  When it snapped, I pulled another and rammed it as hard and as fast into its neck as I possibly could.  And it exploded.    
  
Its body erupted into a blue light as his flesh shattered into fractals of ice, throwing me back onto the ground where my head cracked up against the ground, stars dancing in front of my vision.  I could feel a burst of cold and when I opened my eyes, Karstaag was gone, nothing but frozen ash that was blown away in the wind.    
  
I wasted no time.  Weak, tired and hurt, I crawled to Teldryn’s side, kneeling down beside the dunmer.  “Teldryn?” I croaked, my voice hoarse from the cold and exhaustion.  He didn’t answer.  “Teldryn,” I tried again.    
  
Finally, I heard Teldryn give a shaky breath.  “Did you kill the beastie?”  
  
I could have laughed.  I nodded.  “I did,” I whispered.  I looked down at his bloody armor and I didn’t care whether or not he minded, I removed his plate armor and put it to the side and tore away his clothing to look at his wound...and it was bad.  The giant must have caught him right in the gut with that speared edge of his club...he had been stabbed clean through.  
  
I felt a lump rising in my throat.  “You’ll be okay,” I said numbly, reaching into my cloak and fumbled around for a vial.  There was one left, but when I pulled it in front of me, I saw a foaming black liquid.  Poison.  “No,” I whispered, drawing my pack so that I could dig through it.  “No, no, no,” the words were being spoken without permission as I searched frantically for a vial of a health poultice.  I didn’t have one.  
  
“Please tell me you have one,” Teldryn muttered and I cringed, giving a shake of his head.  I heard him breathe.  It was liquidy and choked, like he was trying to breathe around water in his throat.  “What a shame,” he muttered.  “I had been so looking forward to leaving this desolate ruin.”  
  
“You still can,” I lied.  Or was it a promise?  Now, I can’t tell.  I was just so desperate to find some kind of hope that he could live.  That we would be able to walk out of that courtyard together and I would have to suffer his moaning about how I had once again led them into mortal peril.  
He gave a gravelly cough, muffled by his helm.  “Don’t lie to me, outsider,” he hissed.  “I’m no fool.”  
  
I knew he wasn’t.  And neither was I.  We both knew his inevitable fate.  What surprised me however, was when I saw him move.  He gasped in pain as he reached up, placing both of his hands on the sides of his helmet and he lifted it up and over his head.  And for the first time, I saw Teldryn Sero’s face.  
  
He had the ashen grey skin of a dunmer, with the gaunt, lean face, more handsome than the average dunmer, and with a more rugged look than you saw on the faces of most elves.  His dark, greasy hair was up in a mohawk that was matted and messy from being shoved inside a helm, but what drew my eyes the most were his tattoos.  They began in two dashed lines on his lower lips that slipped upwards, around his cheekbones and met his eyebrows.    
  
Blood slipped down from his lips, reaching the his crimson scarf and disappearing in the red cloth.  He coughed, more blood blossoming on his lips and he gasped, shoving his helmet at me.  “Take it, outlander,” he whispered weakly, his head knocking back against the frozen wall.  I could see his chest jerking as he struggled to breathe around the blood.    
  
I reached out and grasped my friend’s hand.  I knew the dark elf enough to know that he meant more than just the helm.  “I will,” I choked.  
  
A look that was similar to that of relief washed over the dark elf’s sharp features.  Something like a gruesome grin ghosted over his lips for just a brief second and then went still, his icy breath dissipating into the air.    
Teldryn Sero was gone.    
  
  
  
The warmth of Riverwood’s summer sun burned into my shoulders as I strolled through the town.  I had left my armor behind, garbed now only in a wool tunic and dark trousers, a heavy bag under my arm.    
  
I could feel the spray of the river’s water on my face, the smallest mist that cooled my heated skin.  I could feel the a warm breeze that licked at my face and tousled my hair.  And I could hear the soft melting pot of laughter and chatting that echoed from the town as I strolled away from it.  
I came to a stump that rested on the edge of the river.  It had been cut down years before, but yet it was still alive with moss growing on the top, butterflies curling around my head and I lowered down, slipping my hands into my bag and pulled out the helm.  It glowed a golden light in the sun and I placed it on the stump.  
  
“There, you insufferable elf,” I whispered under my breath, with a smile.  It was short lived as I felt a pang in my stomach.  Five months.  But I still missed the pointy eared asshole.    
  
I rested my hand on top of his helm and closed my eyes.  A moment of silence as I recalled my adventures, remembered his words, and recalled the meaning of that one sentence he spoke to me in Riverwood that changed my life.    
  
I stood, closing my eyes and felt the summer winds of Riverwood blowing on my face, warming my fingers and ruffling my hair.  Teldryn Sero was right.  Riverwood was the pinnacle of peace.  The perfect place for the final resting place for a friend.    
  
“Goodbye, Teldryn...I’m sorry.”


End file.
